Pruitt shoots 66 for Men's City lead

Michael Pruitt didn’t win four individual state championships in high school, then play collegiately and professionally without learning how to keep his composure on the golf course.

Staying even-tempered helped him on Friday.

Pruitt bogeyed two of the first four holes on Meadowbrook’s Canyon Course and still shot 6-under 66 to lead the Men’s City Championship after the first round.

“All in all, it was a good round,” said Pruitt, the former Idalou and North Texas player. “I wish I would have started out better, obviously, but that’s just part of it. You start off bad, you’ve got to find a way to get it back going.”

That didn’t take long. Pruitt made four birdies in a five-hole stretch from Nos. 6-10 and three birdies in a four-hole span from Nos. 13-16.

And just like that, he has a good shot to four-peat as Men’s City champion, the only one of the Lubbock major tournaments that uses an individual stroke-play format. He has a one-shot lead on Shawn Reeves going into a morning round today on Meadowbrook’s par-70 Creek Course.

“I started out kind of rough,” said Pruitt, referring to bogeys on the par-5 No. 1 and the par-4 No. 4. “But after that, I kind of settled in and made some good shots and some putts.”

Pruitt birdied a couple of par-3s and chipped close for another pair of birdies on Nos. 10 and 13. He used his 8-iron on the par-3s, in to 10 feet on No. 3 and to 2 feet behind the flag on No. 15.

“When you can play the par-3s in 2-under, that sure he helps,” he said.

Reeves made two eagles on the front nine in his round of 67. He chipped in on the par-4 No. 2 and hit his approach to 3 feet on the par-5 No. 8.

Ryan Rogers, part of the winning team at this year’s Reese/Benny Boyd Memorial Day Partnership, is sitting in third. Rogers carded a 3-under 69 playing in the day’s final group.